A Jack indulged himself in the feeling of comfort, his Soul was changing more and more. All the Fire Energy that was raging inside the Magic Formation seemed extremely dangerous from the outside but inside the Formation itself, it wasn’t as it seemed. The closer to the centre of the Formation one was, the more potent but at the same time more docile the Energy was.

The purpose of the Formation was to change the Soul by imbuing it with Energy and slowly infusing the two, it’s purpose was not to reduce a Soul to ashes. However, the sheer amount of potent Fire Energy that was inside Formation was completely dependent on the Soul of the target.

If the target had a weak Soul, the process of transformation would be an extremely slow one but at the same time, the stronger one’s Soul was, the harder it was to change it on a fundamental level. This kind of a paradox was what made this Formation dangerous.

If one did not have any affinity with the main element of Formation but had a very strong Soul, he could raise his affinity with the element through tempering his Soul with the potent Energy. However, if the persons Soul is weak and has no affinity with the element, it is very likely that the Soul will be shattered if the person controlling the Formation can’t stop it in time.

Raelag had been very afraid that Jack had a weak affinity with the Fire Element or that his Soul would be weak, so in the beginning he was ready to stop the Formation without a second thought the very moment a problem occurred. However, now he saw that Jack was absorbing the purest and most potent Fire Energy like a person that met the most luxurious feast after weeks of starving.

Jack’s demand for the Energy had already far outstripped what Raelag could provide on his own, so he used the Mask as a medium and started drawing in vast amounts of Fire Energy from the outside, thinking that it would be enough for Jack to complete his Soul Transformation.

However, to his horror, it seemed to have a reverse effect, so he had no other choice that to bring out the five crystals. Those crystals were the Cores of Origin Realm Fire Dragons that had been born from the Primadorial Mist.

The Fire Energy inside those Cores was something that even Raelag in his prime would absorb carefully. However, Jack seemed not even give a damn and the ferocity of the Flames from the Cores was very docile when it approached Jack. This made Raelag even more flabbergasted because he had absorbed the Fire Energy from the Cores before, so he knew very well how berserk that Energy was. So when he saw how docile the berserk Energy became when it came in contact with Jack made him completely give up on trying to understand Jack. “Only about ten percent of Energy left…. At this rate, it is going to be close.”

As Raelag thought that to himself, his body had become even more translucent and it seemed as though it would fade away any moment now. Jack’s transformation was also nearly complete as he seemed to be made of fire. Soon, all the Fire Energy was absorbed into Jacks body in one breath and Jack’s body started turning red. Seeing this, Raelag held his breath as he took his hands from the Formation.

The Formation’s job was done as all of the Fire Energy needed was gathered and Jack’s Soul had been transformed into a Fire Mage Soul. Now all that was left was to take all the left over Fire Energy and condense it into a Crystal Core. If Jack did not do this, then his body won’t be physically able to bear the Soul. Currently, his Soul was inside the Mask, so his body wasn’t in harms way but if his extremely strong and potent Fire Soul returned to his body as it was, his body won’t be handle it and his body would burn to ashes.

Cultivators source of power was their dantian, something that was in their body since birth. On their path of cultivating, they would first awaken the dantian, then build up their dantian. However, Mages were different, they did not have a dantian or a Core of any kind in their bodies since birth. They condensed their own Crystal Core from the Energy they absorbed, so the higher quality the Energy was, the higher the quality of the Crystal Core.

The quality of the Core made all the difference because of time. Over time, you can improve the quality of your Crystal Core but you need to have good resources and time to slowly improve it over time. However, if your Core was already of high quality from the beginning, that meant that you had to spend less time on improving it’s quality.

Also, the higher the quality of the Core, the better one could feel the Energy in the air and his absorption rate was also higher. Although, no matter how bad of a Core a Mage started with, every single Mage had the possibility of becoming a Sage. However, the basis of that was that the person himself worked hard.

The Fire Energy inside Jack’s body suddenly started leaking out from his body and all of it gathered in front of Jack. Seeing this, Raelag’s heart clenched as he held his breath. The most crucial step had now started: Formation of the Crystal Core. Although it didn’t matter what Core a Mage condensed, the higher the quality of the Core, the better his starting point was. Raelag wasn’t worried about the Core quality at the moment but rather whether Jack would succeed at all.

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Jack had absorbed enormous amounts of pure, potent Fire Energy and the higher the quality of the Energy, the harder it was to infuse it together to form a Core. The Energy in front of Jack started infusing into a small red ball in front of him but as a bit of it infused together, the round ball started bulging. Seeing this, Raelag’s face flickered as he thought to himself, “Damn, he’s failing!”

As the thought entered his head, he suddenly closed his eyes as quickly crouched down and put his hands on the Magic Formation again. Suddenly, an Archaic Devil covered in black flames appeared behind Raelag. He wasn’t the only one as a young woman with long pointy ears also appeared behind him. However, she did not look like the one Jack had seen in the Hall of Troops. She had long grey hair and her pupils were completely crimson red.

As the two appeared behind Raelag, they put one had on Raelag’s back and also closed their eyes. Raelag started materialized again as the two poured Energy into Raelag. However, he soon started turning translucent again as Raelag poured all of the Energy he received, plus his own, into the Magic Formation to aid Jack in forming his Crystal Core.

Having received Raelag’s aid, the little red ball of Energy in front of Jack stabilized and as more and more Energy poured into it, it soon started taking the shape of a crystal. The Crystal Core looked as if you took two pyramids and joined their bottom sides together with one pointy end at the top and the other at the bottom. When Raelag laid his eyes on the Crystal Core, he couldn’t help but feel exited. The Crystal Core looked completely translucent red without a single impurity to ruin it.

However, what made Raelag puzzled was that the Energy was still gathering at the Crystal, seeming like the Crystal Core was not complete yet. The Energy didn’t become a part of the Crystal but rather entered it and becoming a small flickering flame. Seeing this, Raelag couldn’t help but shout in joy, “The Heavens have not abandoned me! For me to accidentally choose a Child of Fire as my successor, the Heaves truly favour the hard working.” The flame inside the Crystal Core grew stronger and stronger.

Although it was still a small flame inside the Crystal it didn’t look like a feeble flame that a gentle breeze would be able to extinguish. Now it excluded a strong and destructive feel. That was the Essence of Fire, Destruction. After the Flame had appeared inside the Crystal Core, the Energy Jack poured out started diminishing and soon it completely stopped.

After Jack stopped pouring Energy, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the Crystal Core in front of him. His eyes followed the movement of the Flame as if he was possessed. Seeing this, Raelag let out a sigh. He took a look at his nearly completely transparent arms and sighed, “Seems like I won’t be here for long.” He looked towards the two figures behind him and seeing them look at Jack in shock, he felt a bit better. “At least these two will be able to guide him a bit.”

He looked at Jack again and seeing him having come out of his trance and looking straight at Raelag, Raelag cleared his throat and said, “That is your Crystal Core. Now all that is left is for you to infuse it with your body. Unless you do that, your body will not be able to withstand the might of your own Soul and would be reduced to ashes if you returned.”

Hearing this, Jack looked at the Crystal Core with interest as he asked, “How can I do that Master?” Jack had successfully inherited Raelag’s Legacy so he was like a Master to him. Hearing the word Master, Raelag let out a bitter laugh as he said, “I am not qualified to be your Master, so instead call me Raelag.” He took a breath and then waved his hand. As he did so, the Crystal Core in front of Jack disappeared after a moment, Jack felt comfortable warmth.

What made him puzzled was that the warmth seemed to come from his body but he could feel that he was in Soul Form right now. After indulging himself in the warmth for a while, it slowly subsided. He looked at the nearly disappeared Raelag and asked respectfully, “Why do you feel as though you are unqualified to be my Master?”

Raelag’s eyes were covered in a bitter light as he said, “A Master is someone that offer’s guidance to his Disciple and looks over them so that they don’t go astray. However, I don’t have much time left and will disappear on my own after half an hour, so I won’t be able to fulfil the duties of Master towards his Disciple.”

Hearing this, Jack was shocked. However, he quickly understood the reason behind Raelag not wanting to call him Master. Everyone had their own pride and for Raelag to be called Master without being able to provide any help or guidance hurt his pride. Raelag then said, “I can’t make you not see me as a Master in your heart if you want to but in the outside world, you are to address me as Raelag instead of Master. This will be my first and last order as your Master.”

After Raelag had said that, Jack respectfully fell to his knees and kowtowed to him and said, “No matter what, you gave me a new chance at life. For me you will always be my Master, no matter what others think.” Raelag’s eyes flashed with emotion as he told Jack to get up.

He then pointed his finger at Jack’s forehead and said, “I can’t teach you much but I will be able to give you the method of fully controlling the Mask. You will be able to enter it and leave it as you please. You will also gain the knowledge of all the functions of the Mask. However, after I pass it all onto you, I will disappear, so I will say it now: May you have a long and peaceful life. Take care of yourself.”

After saying that, he didn’t wait for Jack’s response as a white light shone from his finger and the knowledge was imparted into Jack’s Soul. After the white light faded, Raelag gave Jack one last look as he removed his crown and put it on Jack’s head. After completing this action, his body completely faded away.

However, he wasn’t sad, he looked at Jack with a tender gaze as he murmured in the last moment, “The road ahead will be filled with thorns and pitfalls, only those that climb up a mountain of corpses are allowed to enter the Dao Seeking and beyond.”